6 month old computer keeps rebooting 3

[Righty]

I have system with a P4, an ASUS board, 512 MG ram, 2 Hard drives a CD Drive, DVD DRIVE and assorted expansion cards. I am running XP Professional with Service Pack 1. All of a sudden my computer started constantly rebooting. It will sometimes get half way through bootup and just restart or sometimes I can just get to my desktop and it will reboot. But it is a constant cycle. I cannot get anything done, because it just keeps rebooting. I have a 300W p4 power supply. I am also running 3 fans plus the CPU fan. Could the power supply be over taxed? Do I need a 400W??? Any Ideas????

 

[jrbarnett]

Hi,

A couple of questions:

1) Have you recently changed anything on the system?
2) Has the temperature in your area recently gone up (eg board is overheating)?

John

 

[bcastner]

Boot from the installation CD and choose the repair option to run the recovery console.

type chkdsk /r

Let if finish the chkdsk.

Try a normal start.

 

[ceh4702]

You have to determine is this is caused by the Hardware or the operating system. You could try to boot from a floppy and see what happens.

Be careful. This sort of thing can be cause by a lot of different issues. Sometimes it can be a power supply not supplying stable power. sometimes it can be a processor getting hot. Bad RAM or video card. Sometimes there is a setting in the BIOS to just reboot instead of shutting down. IBM's use to have this setting to reboot after a power loss. It could get into a loop. Newer motherboards use hybernation and restart settings in the BIOS.

You could try disconnecting the power and then clearing the BIOS.

You have to determine is this is caused by the Hardware or the operating system. You could try to boot from a floppy and see what happens.

If you do not like my post feel free to point out your opinion or my errors.

 

[Righty]

I changed the RAM, Power Supply, Video Card, and nothing helps. When the system does at least reach the desktop, there is an error message from Norton Antivirus saying Access denied to drive C. THe temp on the Motherboard is about 85-90F the processor is about 100-120F. If I run the chkdsk /r will I erase anything???

 

[Righty]

If I start in "Safe Mode" it does not shut down. The system is running XP Pro, and it has GoBack.

 

[bcastner]

It likely will not shut down because it is not running its advanced power services.

If you hold the button in for 10-15 seconds or so it should shut down.

And an earlier question: no chkdsk will not erase anything. I suggested it because for new machines like yours it often is a minor drive inconsistency that chkdsk can repair that leads to your problem. Although, as cdh4702 correctly points out it could be a lot of things.

 

[Righty]

I put the CD in and tried to reach the repair section. I got a Blue Screen saying " A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Run a system Diagnostic utility supplied by your manufacturer. In particular, run a memory check for faulty or mismatched memory. Try changing video adapters. Disbale or remove any newly installed hardware and drivers. Disable or remove any newly installed software ..." "Technical Information ***Stop: 0x0000007F (0x0000000F, 0x000000000, 0x000000000, 0x00000000)".
I already changed video, ram, Power Supply and nothing changed

 

[rburke]

Have you tried a new hard drive? It's possible that you MFT has been corrupted. Or it could be a motherboard issue. I just had my motherboard do the same thing to me, except that I could get part of the way through an OS install and then it would freeze. Had to replace the motherboard since it looked like the IDE controller was damaged. Probably not what you wanted to here, but just thought I'd let you know. Try replaceing the hard drive and see if that helps. Hopefully it will.

Burke

 

[bcastner]

If you have less than release 21b of Go Back, update it. It drives XP install crazy.

 

[Righty]

GoBack is 3.0 Why if it makes it to the desktop would I have a message saying "Norton Antivirus: ATTENTION Access Denied, drive C"???? Do you think it is a virus? I am trying out everything before worrying if Motherboard or need new hard drive.

 

[Ron40]

I had the exact same thing happen to my pc. It drove me nuts , I tried many things and nothing would work . Then finally I had to go back to the last good configuration ,I did that and the restarting stopped. So you may want to try that and see if it works for you too .

 

[mainegeek]

I have seen this problem several times with Go Back. I would suggest Halting it at boot and doing a manual removal of it from there.

 

[bcastner]

3.0? This is not rated as XP compatible. the first compatible version was 3.01. The current release of GoBack is 3.21b.

Please update.

 

[Righty]

When it booted to the desktop I went to msconfig and disabled GoBack. I rebooted buit it still did the same thing. It just reboots at any time. So I re-enabled Goback. At this time it is booted to the desktop and I can work with it. But I know that it will just reboot at any time soon. Any idea why I keep getting the Norton Antivirus error message stated above?

 

[lvengineer]

Hi Righty,
I have seen this many times and more than seventy percent of the time it has been a hardware problem. I suggest you disconnect everything not needed, sound cards, ide devices including cd/dvd drives, etc. Boot the system with only fdd, hdd, ram and moniter/agp. If it doesn't cycle, you know it's hardware. Very often cd/dvd drives cause "load spikes" on the dc power supply. This causes the system to reboot.
Good luck,
Bruce